I want to dream in colour
by Orenji Renji
Summary: A one-shot that decided it was unhappy with that arrangement and is now three parts and may continue to grow. So far it concerns Kakashi moving in with Iruka and is a series of vignettes depicting their life together. Kakairu
1. Of face masks and breakfast

"Hmm? You smell….oddly floral", Iruka murmured, looking distinctly perplexed. Kakashi plopped himself into a chair across the table from the chuunin, rubbing his hair dry on a towel.

"Jaa, I forgot to grab my shampoo last night, so I borrowed some. Gomen", the jounin replied, his eyes curving into slightly embarrassed arcs. His mouth was obscured by a hand towel tied into a makeshift mask. It seemed to be second nature now for the ninja to cover his lower face that way. It was one of his many little foibles that only endeared him all the more to Iruka.

"Yare yare…you'd forget your kunai if they weren't holstered to your thigh", Iruka mock-grumbled, trying hard not to let his thoughts wonder far enough to actually envisage the aforementioned thigh. There were always distinct dangers in bringing parts of Kakashi's anatomy into a conversation. Iruka couldn't possibly recall just how many times one of his offhand comments had ended up with his staring into space while washing the same dish over and over. And unfortunately, Kakashi had started to notice the pattern.

"Heh heh, you look like you're concentrating rather too hard on chewing that cereal, Iru-kun. Shredded wheat can't possibly be that tasty", the scarecrow said, now all mischief where he had previously been chagrined. Iruka felt himself colouring despite himself, mouth full and unable to comment. He settled instead for a glare that ended up having an effect that was rather the opposite to what was desired. Kakashi was apparently trying to swallow his fist through the 'face-towel' to stop from laughing himself stupid at the hilarity that was the death stare Iruka was (attempting) to give him. He just couldn't help but find the chuunin impossibly cute, regardless of his intentions.

Iruka at first looked perplexed by Kakashi's reaction, then leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes, looking defeated, resigning himself to just finishing his current mouthful. Breakfast with Kakashi was somehow never a simple affair. The jounin took altogether too much pleasure in watching his every movement from behind half lidded eyes. The jounin had taken to leaving his hitai-ate off until his hair was dry after his morning shower, leaving his sharingan free to attempt to weird Iruka out with. Add in the fact that Kakashi was an amazingly fast eater, and breakfast was pretty much turned into some variety of Dolphin-Theatre for Kakashi's viewing pleasure.

"One of these days I'm going to fit a lock to the outside of my bathroom door", Iruka murmured, his mouthful finally gone, "And I'm not going to let you out until I've finished my breakfast". Kakashi's face fell, adopting the look of a wounded puppy.

"Iru-kun, you'd take away my morning treat? But you're the only way I can start my day properly," Kakashi murmured, his hurt expression still in place. Iruka's expression changed to slightly surprised at this information, then to a look of sympathy. Just as he opened his mouth to take it back, Kakashi's eyes curved up happily again and he said, rather too gleefully, "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to start taking my water-proofed copy of Icha Icha Paradise into the shower with me again!"

Iruka's eyes opened wide and he looked like he was trying hard not to vault across the table and strangle the far-to-pleased-with-himself scarecrow. Instead, he just slumped in his chair, closed his eyes again and said, "Gah! I swear, every time I think I've got you figured out, you go and throw me another curve ball."

"Variety is the spice of life, Iru-kun," Kakashi said merrily and took advantage of Iruka's lack of vision to gobble the bowl of rice that was sat in front of him. It wasn't that he didn't like Iruka seeing his face, it was just a habit he found hard to kick, even in private situations. His face was sober again by the time Iruka looked up.

"But seriously, Iru-kun, there's something I need to ask you." Iruka raised an eyebrow, again befuddled by the jounin's near-constant mood shifts. Actually, they seemed to be more frequent than normal today, Iruka thought. He wondered what was causing it.

"Forgetting various items when I stay the night here is becoming a nuisance. I was thinking perhaps it was time to do something about it," the scarecrow continued, looking down at his rice bowl.

Iruka looked at him, blinking a couple of times. "Er, sure, you know you're more than welcome to leave your stuff here. It's not like you ever bring much, so it wouldn't be in the way."

Kakashi shook his head a little, clearly not relishing trying to get his message across. "No, Iru-kun, I was thinking of a solution that's a little more permanent than having a spare tooth-brush and shampoo here." He looked up to see Iruka digesting his words, trying to put two handfuls of rice and two strips of nori together and getting five onigiri. Kakashi decided just to bite the bullet, for better or for worse. "Iru-kun, I'd…very much like for us to live together."

Iruka's eyes opened wide. The possibility of what Kakashi's cryptic words has meant had been floating just out of reach, but that brought the idea into sharp relief. He didn't really know why it was such a shock. He'd toyed with the idea himself from time to time. The two nins had been practically living out of each others pockets for months now, spending the night at one or the other's apartment. He supposed the reason it shocked him now was that without it really being a conscious thought, he hadn't expected Kakashi to want to share his living space. Kakashi didn't seem the domestic type. He couldn't cook to save his life, his apartment was always a bomb site. Iruka had taken it upon himself to mend his bed sheets for him a number of times because they had become so tatty. Add to his mode of living that Kakashi always had that air of boredom about him and Iruka had been sure he'd never have agreed to living together, let alone be the one to suggest it.

A minute went by and Iruka realised he was still staring at the jounin and hadn't actually said anything. Kakashi's expression was mostly unreadable, but from practise, Iruka could tell it was because he was awaiting rejection. He was preparing to mask his disappointment and spring back to his upbeat façade that masked whatever mental pain he might be in. Standing up, Kakashi's eyes predictably curved upwards again, this time in completely faux-happiness and muttered, "Gomen ne, I didn't mean to make you feel awkward. I'll be going now".

Kakashi turned his back to leave and Iruka suddenly sprang up from his seat, moving with great urgency. He grabbed Kakashi in a bear hug from behind, fisting his hands in the material at the front of his black jounin sweater and pressing his face into his lover's back, effectively impeding his departure.

"Don't. Don't go. I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. I…I just never expected to hear those words from you. Of course I want to live with you. Please stay?" Iruka couldn't see it, but Kakashi's face was a picture of relieved happiness. Turning around, the jounin buried his face in Iruka's shoulder, wrapping his arms around him.

"Arigato," the taller man murmured into Iruka's sweater, the sound coming out a little muffled. Iruka smiled softly, returning the embrace. He decided that moments like this, of which there were many, more than made up for the embarrassment of breakfast-time.

"Just promise me one thing?" Iruka said . He heard a kind of questioning 'Hrnn?' sound mumbled into his shoulder. "Don't think this means you can leave your dirty books all over my coffee table now. And it _will_ be _my_ coffee table. Your place is way too small to fit all my assorted junk in."

"Deal", Kakashi said, pulling back so that he could pull off his makeshift face mask to plant a soft kiss on Iruka's lips. Iruka leaned into it happily, much more pleased than he had ever imagined he would be at this progress in their relationship. Living together was another sign of Kakashi's commitment. It wasn't that Iruka didn't trust the man, but the jounin prided himself on being unreadable and unpredictable. Even though he let Iruka see a large amount more of his true nature than anyone else, he had found that retaining some measure of mystery allowed him to coax the chuunin into blushing that much more often. Because of this, Iruka often found it difficult to keep track of where their relationship was heading, letting alone where they were currently.

Suddenly grabbing the smaller man and pulling him up to cradle him, Kakashi smiled at the 'Eeep' of surprise that it earned him. Chuckling, Kakashi carried him towards the bedroom, grinning far too happily. "Um, what are you doing?" Iruka said, blushing once more.

"Well, I thought we should celebrate our progress," Kakashi smirked dirtily. "By christening your bed".

Iruka somehow managed to flush a deeper red, "But….we already did _that_ on _that_ bed, so how can we christen it?"

"Ahh, but we didn't do it on that bed while we were both officially living under one roof, ne?" Kakashi had that air about him that Iruka knew was associated with situations that were impossible for chocolate haired chuunins to get out of. Iruka sighed, resigning himself to the fact, deciding Kakashi already knew, and so didn't need informing, that he had given the worst excuse ever. Thank kami-sama it was Saturday.

-

Notes

Onigiri- Rice ball

Nori- Sheets of roasted seaweed

In case it wasn't obvious, this sentence: "He looked up to see Iruka digesting his words, trying to put two handfuls of rice and two strips of nori together and getting five onigiri", was meant to be a pun on the phrase "putting two and two together and getting five", but with a Japanese twist. I wasn't sure if that was going to come over properly (it was one of those "It sounds ok in my head" moments).

CC appreciated. This is like, my second time of writing fiction EVER, so please be gentle ;;. My first time writing Kakairu as well, so sorry if the characters are a bit off. I just felt like trying my hand. I have no idea how it turned out. Kakashi is maybe a bit more vulnerable than I would have liked, but perhaps I can work on that. Ja mata! Thanks for reading


	2. Kaimono

Kaimono

Kakashi blinked. Of all the things he'd imagined himself doing with Iruka after their celebratory game of hide-the-trouser-snake, food shopping wasn't one of them. He now stood outside one of Konoha's two supermarkets, wondering just how the chuunin had managed to drag him there so damned fast. Just as he was about to make a crack about Iruka's housewifely tendencies, he found himself ushered through the sliding doors and the handle of a trolley thrust into his hands. Iruka was already walking off down the dairy aisle, a gleeful 'I'm going to fill the fridge so full, opening it is going to be a health hazard' look upon his face. With a resigned sigh, Kakashi started to follow, leaning his elbows on the handle of his trolley. He wondered vaguely what a sight the two of them must make. Iruka was getting ahead in his enthusiasm and had to keep trotting back, his arms full of various produce.

Eyeing the latest jumble of foodstuffs, Kakashi said, "Is there some upcoming siege I don't know about?"

Iruka surprised Kakashi by actually stopping to reply, although the air around him felt like it was buzzing with barely suppressed energy.

"Heh, gomen, Kakashi-kun," the chuunin replied, blushing. "I just thought we should start things off the right way, you know. I mean, before I never knew when I'd need to make sure I had enough to feed two people in my fridge. Now I know you'll be around at meal times, I have to be sure there's plenty for both of us."

Kakashi gave Iruka a slightly bored look. "I'm not expecting gourmet cuisine, Iru-kun. I can survive on whatever's available. Just stock up with plenty of natto and I'll be fine."

Iruka had the look of someone staring at a large slug on a plate and being told it was all that was left for dinner. "You…you eat that stuff?"

Kakashi lifted his eyebrows, widening his eyes a little. "You don't? I practically lived off it at one point. Of course I was being called on to do a lot of S class missions at the time. Natto all the time was fine when I was busy, but it soon got boring when I had less to do. That's when I started getting creative." At this point his visible eye curved upwards.

"Crea…creative..?" Iruka asked, already regretting it.

"Hai. Let's see…so many wonderful creations, it's hard to pick out the best..." Kakashi's eyes slid up to stare at the ceiling and he placed a finger over the mask where his lips would be. "Well, there was the honey and ketchup ramen with canned ham. That was pretty good. And for desert with that I made sandwiches out of some castilla cake I had lying around, with sweet bean paste spread on it…"

Iruka's face wore the same expression he'd had the first time Pakkun had opened his mouth and spoken to him.

"Then there were the onigiri I dipped in toffee…oh and I made sushi with horseradish in because I didn't have anything resembling fish left…and not much resembling vegetables either now that I think about it."

Iruka's face was turning a strange shade, his teeth clenched tightly together as Kakashi continued to rattle off bizarre concoctions that didn't sound at all healthy.

"Ok, ok, stop!" the chuunin said at last, unable to take any more disgusting mental images, not to mention the phantom tastes he was imagining in his mouth. "One thing has become abundantly clear. You're never cooking me dinner EVER."

Kakashi's eyes came down from the ceiling to rest on Iruka. "Eating is a means of survival, Iru-kun. My stomach is particularly hardy. I'm not really bothered what I eat, in what order so long as it gets the job done. It all gets mixed together inside anyway."

"That doesn't mean you have to eat like that even when it's not necessary, Kashi-kun! Damnit, I'm making double sure I cook decent meals for you from now on." With that, Iruka grabbed the trolley from Kakashi, who nearly landed on the floor, having had the object he had been propping himself up with removed rather swiftly. Sighing, he straightened up, shoved his hands in his pockets and proceeded to walk after Iruka, trying to keep up with the blur of a chuunin (who was now grabbing fresh vegetables by the armful), but without looking remotely hurried. It was a skill that was known to few, and mastered by even less. He made a mental note to make sure he took Iruka out to a restaurant often enough to make up for all the homecooked meals it sounded like he was going to be forcefed. Not that he minded. Iruka was quite proficient in the kitchen. 'Even more so on the kitchen table', Kakashi thought with a smirk.

He followed Iruka , who was just passing the pet supplies section. "Chotto, Iru-kun. I need to grab something from here," he called out, scanning the products.

"Pet food? What could you possibly need pet food for?" Iruka asked, looking confused. "I've been to your apartment almost every day for the past few months and I've never seen anything resembling an animal."

"Ahh, that would be because Miyu-chan doesn't stay in my apartment," Kakashi replied mysteriously.

"Miyu-chan?" Iruka replied, confusion changing to curiosity.

"Hai, Miyu-chan. My cat-friend. He visits me from time to time. I leave food out for him. I don't think he has an actual owner, but he's too aloof and private to stay in my apartment with me. He doesn't even eat when I'm looking."

'Sounds familiar', Iruka thought, a sarcastic look on his face. "So he's mooching off you?"

"Hmm…perhaps. But I have a feeling his presence and the lack of rodent problems I have are connected. The people in the block right next to mine have had serious infestations, while my block has remained in the clear. Plus, Miyu-chan must eat between visits. It all adds up," Kakashi said, examining a sachet of cat food.

"I see. Oh, but wait. You're moving in with me. What will Miyu do when you're gone?"

"Oh, don't worry about him. He'll figure out where I am. One time I had guard duty at the gates three nights in a row. He turned up there on the third demanding his payment," Kakashi replied, looking dissatisfied with the available cat food. He turned away from the pet food, making a beeline for the canned goods section, Iruka following him. Picking up several cans of mackerel, he looked satisfied with what he'd got.

"Mackerel? Isn't that more expensive than regular cat-food?" Iruka asked.

"Hai. But I've tried giving him normal stuff before and he always leaves me 'presents' when I do. The kind that smell and require plastic bags to remove. So mackerel it is," the jounin answered.

"Sou ka. Well, I think that's everything, unless you want anything else?" Kakashi shook his head, no. Moving to the checkout, Iruka started to unload the trolley, putting everything in the order it was to go in the bags. The lady serving them recognised him and after asking him how he was doing, and wasn't the weather lovely, started talking about her child, whom Iruka was teaching. Kakashi meanwhile had given himself the mission of bag-packing. He organised each item as it arrived, not putting anything into bags yet, but preparing for it. Once every item had been checked by the lady at the counter, he checked to make sure both of them were still engrossed in their conversation, then began packing the bags at lightning speed, almost too fast for human eyes to follow. Within 5 seconds, all the items were packed neatly and efficiently. Iruka payed and turned to Kakashi, giving him an odd, confused look, feeling something akin to déjà vu, except instead of feeling like he was seeing something again, he felt he'd just missed something. It was the same feeling he got when he looked up to find Kakashi had just devoured a bowl of ramen in the five seconds he'd been ordering drinks from a waiter. Kakashi for his part just looked bored, holding five bags, leaving Iruka three.

"All done, Iru-kun?" the jounin asked.

"Yeah…let's go," Iruka replied, hoping he didn't sound too overtly suspicious.

* * *

Notes 

References

Castilla sandwiches- A reference to Bleach's Inoue Orihime and her bizarre nutritional inventions.

Miyu- A reference to FLCL. I don't know why, but that name just struck me as the perfect cat name.

The mackerel- A reference ( I know it's a pretty random thing to be a reference, lol) to Haruki Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". If anyone happens to have insightful thoughts about the book, I'd love to hear them. It feels like understanding is just out of reach.

Japanese

Matte- Wait

Kaimono- Shopping

Gomen- Sorry

Sou ka- I see

Hai- yes/that is correct

Chotto- just a moment/wait a sec. Abbreviation of "Chotto matte".

Onigiri- Rice ball with nori wrapped around it

Natto- Fermented soya beans. Apparently they're one of the top 5 breakfast foods in Japan. Seems to be the marmite of Japan; you either love it or hate it. Apparently I think Kakashi is a natto man. Although I don't know what that says about him.

And no, I don't know why Kakashi has a 'cat-friend'. Perhaps I'll use that later, perhaps not. I'm not exactly sure what these stories are. I guess I'll call them a series of one-shots/vignettes for now, but post them on together for easy viewing. They do follow on so far, I just have no idea where they're going, lol. I have ideas for the next chapter, if I can call it that, so I'll start on that when I can.

Disclaimer:

Me: "Characters and Konoha don't belong to me."

Masashi Kishimoto: "No, they belong to meeeeeee!"

Me: "Yare yare, no need to rub it in."


	3. The night sky was a present to us

**-Lines mean a scene change, '(A)' is standing in for Mr.Asterisk, whom FFN so cruelly ate. We're hoping that it doesn't get the munchies for the stand in as well. See the notes at the end for notes on the asterisked bits-**

**The night sky was a present to us**

Winter had arrived in Konoha and the entire village was covered in a blanket of snow. Well, except for the roads, which had been gritted for safety reasons. And the rooftops. Not to mention every other surface that juvenile shinobi might decide it would be a good idea to dare their friends to attempt running over. Winter certainly was a trying time for parents with foolhardy children.

Kakashi was currently 'liberating' some old wooden boards from a dumpster near an area of the village that was being repaired after a recent mishap with a fire jutsu.(A) The annual snow lantern festival began that day and he wanted to have his boards ready for lantern moulding ahead of the usual last minute rush towards the late afternoon.

Kakashi began making his way back through the village towards Iruka's apartment, stopping to converse with Team 7 for a few minutes when he passed them making a 'snow scarecrow' snowman variant with a spare uniform Naruto had pestered Iruka into lending him. Reaching Iruka's apartment, the jounin propped the boards against the wall inside the doorway, removing his sandals and placing them alongside Iruka's below the step. Walking through to the kitchen, he found Iruka sitting at the table reading the Konoha Shinbun while sipping a cup of coffee.

"Ah, Kashi-kun. Were you successful?"

"Hai, found four good sized boards no problem." The jounin answered, taking a seat on the other side of the table. "What time do you want to head out and get sculpting?"

"I was thinking about two o'clock if that's ok with you. I have a place in mind, but if we leave it too late other people might have set their lanterns up there," the chuunin replied, looking a little sheepish. Kakashi immediately recognised that it was Iruka's politeness kicking in as usual. The words 'But we can build it someplace you've chosen if you want,' were unspoken, but Kakashi read them as easily as though the chuunin had spoken them aloud.

"Iru-kun, wherever you've chosen is fine by me. I don't have anywhere particular in mind."

Iruka looked relieved that Kakashi wasn't put out by his forwardness, blushing a little and returning his attention to his newspaper.

"However, I do have one condition," Kakashi stated, smiling to himself as he watched Iruka look up in surprise. "You must let me carve the top of the lantern. You may carve the bottom, but let me carve the top?"

"Uh..hai, of course, that's fine," Iruka said, at first looking taken by surprise, then looking slightly accusing as he said, "So long as you're not trying to make insinuations about who wears the trousers in this relationship?"

"Nani?" Kakashi replied, looking bored as well as falsely non-comprehending. "I don't know know what you mean Iru-kun."

"Oh yes you do," Iruka said, looking embarrassed. "I'm not getting the bottom of the lantern just because I'm the uke am I?"

"Why Iru-kun…using such suggestive language so soon in the day? It's only just past noon," Kakashi said teasingly. "But no, that's not my reasoning. Alas, I can't let you in on my little secret yet."

"Tell me?" Iruka murmured, putting on his puppy dog eyes (think Menchi of Excel Saga). He was leaning his chin on his hands, elbows on the table. That particular look had worked before in situations with a specific goal. Ok, so the goal was usually the bedroom, but that didn't mean it couldn't work in this instance too.

"Sorry, Iru-kun, that's not going to work. My mind's made up."

"Tell me?" Iruka was practically pouting.

"Iie."

Getting up and walking around the table, Iruka stradled Kakashi's lap, arms around his neck. Kakashi just leaned back in the chair and put his arms behind his head, lazily.

"Tell me?"

"Iie. And don't think you can worm it out of me with dolphin charm."

"Tell me?" Iruka murmured, moving closer and pulling down the mask, exposing Kakashi's lower face.

"Still no, I'm afraid."

"…" Iruka leaned forward, kissing Kakashi lightly several times before trailing kisses along his jaw. "Tell me?"

Kakashi, for his part, felt sorry for Iruka. The chuunin was unwittingly rewarding the jounin when he had no chance at all of gleaning the information he sought. Well, almost felt sorry. He decided that if Iruka was going to stoop so low as to use his body as leverage, he deserved to not get what he wanted.

With a low growl Kakashi picked the chuunin up, sat him on the edge of the table and pressed him onto his back, crawling onto the table himself in order to kneel on his hands and knees over the chuunin. Iruka uttered a small 'Eeep' sound, eyes widening in surprise.

"You really are stubborn, aren't you," Kakashi murmured, looking rather hungrily at his trapped prey. "You know what they always say, 'Curiosity seriously impaired the dolphin'.

"No they don't, you made that up!" Iruka accused, temporarily forgetting his current status as prey and looking put out. His vocation as a teacher of small children often made him petty when it came to bad puns.

"Maa, sou da. Demo, given the situation, it fits. You're a dolphin, not a cat. And while your curiosity may get you in trouble, I'm not vindictive enough to kill you for it."

"Just vindictive enough to 'seriously impair' me for it?" Iruka replied sarcastically

"Well, when I say impair…I mean that I'd have to make it so you were unable to walk straight for a week if you keep pursuing that particular line of inquiry." Kakashi responded with a lascivious leer. Iruka's eyes widened but he looked like his brain was rapidly processing possibilities. The jounin could tell his prey was weighing up the pros and cons associated with getting the information that was being withheld from him. Kakashi hoped his koi realised he wasn't going to get the information either way. Extracting secrets from horny scarecrows wasn't something they taught at the Academy. Well, not the Konoha Academy anyway, Kakashi thought to himself.

Heaving a sigh, Iruka apparently admitted defeat, having followed his train of thought to the fact that a man who had survived the Mangekyou Sharingan wasn't likely to be broken by a cute chocolate-haired teacher.

"Kuso, I guess waiting is the best option after all," He said, grudgingly.

Kakashi's eyes curved into happy arcs as he got up off the table. "Ii desu. It wouldn't do to make such a mess of the table." The silver haired shinobi made for the fridge. Iruka realised the man hadn't eaten lunch yet and just managed to jump up off the table and intercept him in time before he opened the door.

"Oh no you don't, let me fix you something," the chuunin said, a slightly overzealous pitch to his voice.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You want to wait on me hand and foot now? You're not trying a different tack to worm the secret out of me are you?"

"No, I can just imagine what monstrous creation you might come up with if I let you make something yourself," the dolphin replied, looking like he'd rather live on instant ramen for a month than let Kakashi touch the contents of the fridge. "Just what were you planning on making for yourself?" Iruka asked, as if trying to prove a point.

Kakashi shrugged, "A banana hot dog with natto. What else?" He had his 'duh' face on, Iruka observed. Kakashi's near suicidal attempts at food preparation often left Iruka wondering if he maybe did it on purpose. But then, Iruka reasoned, there were only two reasons for such behaviour. One was to freak Iruka into cooking for him so he could be lazy. The problem with that was that not only would Iruka happily cook anyway, Kakashi would have only had to create one such nightmarish dish in the kitchen and as it was he was up to 3 attempts in the 3 days they had been living together. The second reason Iruka could think of was that Kakashi did it to get that disbelieving response from him and to weird him out. However, Iruka knew Kakashi well enough to know when he was enjoying himself at Iruka's expense and now was not one of those times. Which only left the inconceivable fact that Kakashi must actually enjoy the food he prepared himself.

"O….k…" Iruka said, his face only remaining its usual shade because he was trying to figure out the closest 'real food' he could prepare to what the jounin wanted to eat. "How about a bowl of miso and a banana sundae for dessert?" the chuunin said, looking hopeful.

"Hmm, well, I like my idea better, but since you look so eager, I guess that's fine," Kakashi replied, managing to look only slightly put out.

Iruka tried not to look too relieved as he set about preparing lunch for the two of them

* * *

In a snow covered clearing in a forest on the outskirts of Konoha the leaf genin were gathered, making snowmen. Various approaches were being implemented. Chouji's snowman didn't really resemble anyone in particular, it was just as large as the boy had managed to make it before he stopped for an extended snack break (which was surprisingly, very big indeed.) Lee had managed to get Neji and Tenten to help him to make something he had dubbed the 'Vision of Gai-sensei'. I.e, a rather frosty looking Gai-totem, in one of his characteristic nice-guy poses (Gai had already been by earlier in the day and shouted something about 'the artistic beauty of youth'). Kiba had made a remarkably realistic wolf, to which Shino had added remarkably realistic fleas. Hinata had made a cute snow-Akamaru nearby. Ino had tried to get Shikamaru to help with her Sasuke-shrine, but the most creative thing he did was draw a few clouds in the snow, after which he sat against a tree gazing at the sky, sighing like an old man. 

"Oi, Sasuke-bastard! Incoming!" Naruto had the courtesy to yell as he hurled a snowball at the Uchiha heir. The ball melted a couple of inches from Sasuke's face, melted into liquid by a tiny puff of his katon jutsu. The boy's face remained its usual unimpressed, stoic expression as he said "Dobe, what are you doing?"

"What the hell have you done to that snowman?" the blond haired boy yelled, not lowering his voice, despite the stares he was getting from several other young ninjas nearby. "You were supposed to be making one of me!"

"Sou da. And I did. Don't you see the resemblance?" the dark haired boy said smugly, looking rather pleased with himself as he ducked another snowball, this one the size of his head.

"Grrrr! Why in the hell did you use dog shit for the hair? My hair's blond, you prick!"

"And do you see anything vaguely yellow in my immediate area? All I see is dog shit and a stick. Perhaps the universe is trying to tell you something, Dobe."

"Hey, there isn't anything pink in the area either, bastard, but I borrowed some food colouring to make the hair on my snowma-I mean woman, pink!"

Sakura didn't hear Naruto's attempt to draw attention to the detail he'd lovingly put on his snowwoman of her. She was far too engrossed in arranging the black mop she'd found in a dump on top of her snowman's head. It was harder than she'd imagined it would be to get the quiff right. The scowl on the face was easy enough though.

"Yo" Kakashi drawled as he and Iruka walked up to the trio. Both had on warm overcoats and scarves. Sakura giggled when she noticed the cute dolphins stitched into Iruka's scarf.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto yelled, running to give him a flying hug. It was only once this was achieved that he turned to Kakashi to greet him as well. Sakura greeted both sensei. Sasuke grunted his acknowledgement of their presence, hands shoved deep in his pockets. Had anyone suggested he was trying to keep his hands warm he would have denied it on pain of death. As it was, he was rather concerned of the possibility of having several female shinobi thrusting their gloves at him if he allowed even a tinge of his chilled state to show. He had been blowing tiny sparks into his cupped hands using his katon jutsu whenever he'd been sure no one was looking.

"Well, looks like someone got a little creative here", Kakashi said, amused, as he inspected Sasuke's snowy rendition of Naruto.

"Sasuke-bastard made me a shithead!" Naruto yelled, without pausing to think how it sounded. Everyone in the small snowy clearing turned to look at him. The boy's face went rather blank as the implications sank in.

"I didn't do anything but work with what was already there, Dobe", the Uchiha responded, looking smug.

"It's not very becoming of the prodigy of Konoha's famed Uchiha clan to be playing with dog shit, now is it Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi chided, trying his best look of faux-disapproval. Before Sasuke could respond, however, Naruto tackled him and attempted to shove a handful of snow into his hair.

The jounin and chuunin decided to leave before one of the genin thought of the idea of hurling brown snowballs.

* * *

Heading out of the clearing, Iruka led Kakashi to the place he'd picked for them to make their lantern. As he hefted the boards he'd found earlier, Kakashi realised he recognised the route they were on and soon the shinobi memorial was in sight. His eyes automatically moved to the place he knew Obito's name was engraved into the stone, even though they were too far away for it to be anywhere near visible. 

"Iru-kun? You want to make the lantern _here_?" Kakashi asked. He'd expected Iruka to choose somewhere based on the aesthetics of the place, not the sentimentality. The chuunin had known for a long time that he came here to talk to Obito a lot, but he'd never done anything to suggest approval or disapproval of it. Kakashi had assumed his visitations weren't something that occupied many, if any, of the chuunin's thoughts.

"Hai, if you don't have any objections", the younger man replied. " I thought perhaps you'd like to carve it where Obito-san can appreciate it", Iruka replied, smiling.

Kakashi found himself lost for words for a few seconds. Iruka was a very considerate person at his core, but despite knowing this, Kakashi always had trouble pre-empting moments such as these when the chuunin managed to stay 3 steps ahead of him. Having no living family and no one he classed as close friends, he was profoundly touched by moments like these when the chuunin surprised him with his thoughtfulness.

Iruka saw the speechless look on the scarecrow's face and immediately asked, "Kashi-kun? Gomen, I should have thought. Of course this place holds bad memories, it's inappropriate for this occasion. I'm so sorry, I have no forethought at all-"

Kakashi moved forward, dropping the boards, and placed a hand over Iruka's mouth as the younger shinobi began on his automated 'Oh-kami-sama-I've-offended-you', self-depricating rant. He heard a slight, questioning 'Mmm?' from beneath his hand. Removing it, he put his arms around the chuunin, pulling him into a warm embrace.

"Arigato. Of course. I'd love to make it here." The silver-haired jounin said quietly.

"The lantern. You're talking about the lantern right?" Iruka asked, uncertainly. His leudness radar had been finely tuned to detect Kakashi's insinuations.

The tall man chuckled. "Yes, I'm talking about the lantern. Although I'm open to suggestions." That earned him a thump on his back.

The two shinobi picked up the boards and Iruka removed the rope he'd brought from his pouch. They secured the four rectangular boards into an oblong with tight knots and stood it up on the left side of the memorial. They knew that by the end of the evening there would be a row of lanterns extending onwards from theirs and another row would mirror it the other side. It wasn't the most popular place for lantern building, but nor was it anywhere near the bottom of the list.

Once the boards were in place, the shinobi started to grab as much snow as they could carry and proceeded to hurl it into the the top of the cuboid. The process was slowed at one point by Kakashi deciding it would be a good idea to put snow down Iruka's neck and watch him wriggle, to which Iruka responded by yelling that he was going to put snow down the jounin's pants. While he didn't stand a hope in hell's chance of being able to accomplish what he threatened, it did mean Kakashi wasn't able to drop his guard for the rest of the snow-collecting.

Once the boards were full of snow, Kakashi jumped on top, stamping down the snow, compacting it and levelling out the top. That done, he jumped down, took a kunai from its holster and cut the ropes holding the boards together. All the ropes. So fast that Iruka barely saw him move. The boards all fell away from the column of snow simultaneously.

"You just have to be a flash bastard, don't you?" Iruka muttered, narrowing his eyes.

"Hey, no point doing in 20 seconds what can be achieved in 2, eh?" the jounin responded, eye curved in a happy crescent. "You can start carving now", he stated.

"Huh? Aren't you going to do the top?" The chuunin asked, confusedly.

"No, I'm waiting til you're done. What I'm planning needs space. I can't do it with you standing there."

"Sounds like you want to take a piss, not carve", Iruka replied, sceptically. "You can carve first if you don't want me in the way."

"No, I want to save it til last." Kakashi replied, in a tone that suggested he wasn't going to move on this one. "And if you argue I'll stuff snow down _your_ pants."

Iruka 'eeped', knowing the jounin probably could, and would make good of his threat. "Ok, ok, just don't start complaining that I'm slow."

The chuunin carefully began to carve out the Konohagakure leaf emblem on the front of the snow-column, tentatively at first, then more confidently. He wasn't particularly artistic, but he did have a good eye when the situation called for it. Once he was done with the leaf, he started carving a large hole above it, below it, and two more on the sides of the column, to hold candles. Then he embellished the rest of the bottom of the lantern with shuriken designs and swirling patterns. Finally, satisfied with what he'd produced, he turned around, smiling at Kakashi, who didn't manage to look up at his eyes in time to hide the fact that he'd been staring intently at the chuunin's ass. With a role of his eyes, and a sigh that said 'should have known', the dolphin switched places with the scarecrow, sitting on the warm patch Kakashi had left on the boards.

Kakashi walked casually over to the lantern-to-be, glancing over his shoulder at Iruka to see him watching curiously. Removing his hands from his pockets, he pushed up his hitai-ate, exposing the sharingan eye. Pulling two kunai from his holster, he held them between his teeth while he performed the necessary hand seals. Suddenly moving with incredible speed, he wielded the kunai, slicing at the top of the lantern with what Iruka assumed was some degree of accuracy (it was hard to tell through the flurry of snow if Kakashi was actually carving or butchering the densely packed column.)

After a minute or so, Kakashi's hands stopped moving and he placed the kunai back in his holster. Iruka got up to walk to his side. As the cloud of snow finally settled, Iruka found himself uttering a murmur of disbelief. He found himself staring at a highly detailed sculpture of a scarecrow with a dolphin jumping over its head, complete with water . It seemed Kakashi had used an ice jutsu to freeze the top part of the lantern to facilitate his carving. The sculpture glinted in the light of the now-present moon. It being winter, and it now being around 5pm, darkness was setting in.

"Uwaah!" Iruka exclaimed, in a most un-teacherly semi-coherent fashion. "How the- where in the hell did you learn to do that!"

"I had a low ranking mission in Lightning Country one time that I finished just as their festival of the rains was beginning. They had several artisans who were demonstrating ice carving, so I copied the best one.

"That's not a very professional use of a bloodline-limit ability, Kashi-kun", Iruka said, trying to look disapproving. He managed all of three seconds before he exclaimed, "Damnit, but it's so cute! You even gave the dolphin a blow-hole!"

Kakashi decided not to ruin the moment by making a comment concerning the words 'blow' and 'hole'. Instead he held Iruka in a loose embrace, standing behind him, murmuring into his hair, "Glad you like it. He has a scar on his nose too".

"And the scarecrow has his dirty book, I see," Iruka murmured, less ecstatic about that detail.

"Of course he does," Kakashi replied, amused. " He won't be around that long once the sun comes out tomorrow and the dolphin is out of his reach. He needs something to help him enjoy his brief existence-" Iruka cut him off before he could start expanding on the life-enhancing qualities of porn by twisting around and pressing his lips to the jounin's. The chuunin's lips felt pleasantly warmer because of the stark contrast of the frosty air around them. Iruka noted that Kakashi still tasted vaguely of the banana he'd had for dessert earlier.

"Mmm," Iruka murmured as he broke it off finally. "You have the candles?"

"Hai. You have the fire jutsu?"

"Ha ha, hai", Iruka responded, letting go of Kakashi so the jounin could retrieve four candles from his pocket. Iruka produced small bursts of fire with a basic fire jutsu (A) to light the candles before placing them in the holes above and below the leaf emblem and in the two holes on the sides of the lantern. The effect was an ethereal light that made the thinner parts of the lantern glow translucently. Kakashi found himself smiling despite himself.

Iruka heard a variety of murmuring, confused sounding voices growing closer. A confused look crossing his face, he said, "Hey, now that I think about it, how come nobody else came here to make their lanterns before? It's getting dark, they've left it kind of late. He looked up at Kakashi, who was looking a little too studiedly surprised at the fact that everyone was so late. After around 5 seconds of chuunin death-glaring, he conceded defeat and rubbed at the back of his neck, saying, "Well, someone may or may not have set up a genjutsu around this clearing to make people walk in circles in the surrounding forest…Maa, I wonder who would do such a thing…"

"You made poor innocent Konoha citizens think they were lost in the woods?" Iruka asked righteously.

"Um…it was an accident?" Kakashi tried.

"Your hands just accidentally went through twenty hand seals in what happened to be that order and you just happened to maintain the chakra to the jutsu all the time we've been here?" Iruka said cynically, arms crossed, angry teacher pout firmly in place.

"It's not unheard of," the jounin replied, trying to look convincing. Then he placatingly said, "I just wanted to spend some quiet time with you before the masses arrived was all. And I knew that wouldn't be possible if everyone and their dog showed up, so I…led them astray…for a while."

Iruka tried look righteous on behalf of the throng of very confused looking people who were now setting up their boards and mumbling to each other how they could have sworn they passed the same rock five times on the way there. He tried, really he did, but Kakashi had the puppy-dog eyes out. The ones that said 'All I do is my best to make you happy. Hug me'. So Iruka gave up and did what the eyes were asking.

Torches brought by the people who were now busily making up for lost time with their lanterns, were shoved into the ground, illuminating with orange light the now dark area. The cloudless black sky was broken by a perfect white moon that shone it's light down, making the snow glint brightly. Children ran, throwing snowballs instead of shuriken.

And a dolphin and a scarecrow sat on four stacked wooden boards sipping sake contentedly and watching the moonlight glint off of smooth carved ice.

**Notes**

(A)No one was hurt. I figure shinobi have water tags in areas of their homes designed to release water jutsus at a certain temperature The ninja version of a fire alarm.

(A)I figure that they must teach the kids the most basic jutsus of each element regardless of which village they come from. For instance, a fire jutsu could be used to light a fire in a survival situation. Thus, Iruka has some variety of fire jutsu. Of course the series doesn't really let you see what Iruka's capable of, so it may well be that he knows something more impressive than this. Especially what with it being Fire Country and all.

The night sky was a present to us- rough translation of a line from the song 'Funny Bunny' by the Pillows. Strange but I seem to like using Pillows songs for naming Naruto stuff, even though their stuff is linked to FLCL (which I love). I really should try and do some FLCL fanart at some point.

Line of inquiry- Austin Powers reference.

Iie- No/ that's not so

Hai- Yes/ that is so

Shinbun- Newspaper

Maa, sou da- Well, you're right

Demo- but

Koi- short for koibito, meaning boyfriend/girlfriend, dependent on the situation.

Kuso- damn

Ii desu- That's good

Natto- fermented soy beans

Dobe- dead last

Oi- hey

**Disclaimer**- ** I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters. Masashi Kishimoto does.** I do however own the banana hotdog with natto, so hands off, bitch.


End file.
